I just trapped a bunch of ground squirrels for one of my ranchers. More for me to make coyote bait but it helped him out as this colony was right below his house so shooting isn’t an option. These are the larger squirrels, the bigger ones are the size of prairie dogs. I’ve got them in the freezer for now but am going to grind them soon. I planned to taint them after grinding for 2-3 weeks before adding SB and some glycerin. Any thoughts on what I might add would be appreciated. I have coyote, bobcat and badger glands as well as beaver castor and a little sack oil.

2-3 days is probably enough taint if its hot out. IMO

It’s pretty cool here yet. 3750 is my elevation. Snowed some a couple days this week. Nothing that stayed but enough to make the ground white for a few hours.

Marty, with what you have to work with, I would grind them all up and preserve half of it fresh and then taint the other half but not to a rank stage. Then preserve the tainted portion. Blend the two together and add a bit of castor until its in the background of odor. Add enough glycerin to make it the consistancy you desire. Should be a keeper! Good luck!

Just my take.
I am not a bait or lure maker per se...but I did play around with the smaller 13 lined ground squirrels here mixed in with some chipmunks. Had about 4 gallon ziplock bags of them chopped up. I rotted 2 bags down for a week in a warm place out of the sun and kept 2 bags fresh. I did not add any other ingredients to anything. I used both at deep dirt holes in the early season with no other attractors...this was just an extra back up set. I had 2-4 other trap sets out on location with this deep dirt hole. The fresh ones out caught the rotted ones 3 to 1. I was surprised to say the least. So thinking that I had a "winner" here, I started to add the "fresh bait" to my remakes thinking "this should help." I caught very few coyotes with the addition??? So I thought why not try the rotted ones at the remakes? Bam! I started to catch coyotes at remakes with the rotted ones. Just something to consider in your bait making experiments.

Thank guys. EJ it’s good to hear from you. Hope your season went well. I picked up a few beaver, enough for a couple batches of bait but fought high water in one place and really low water in another in a dam reservoir.

Marty, You should probably remove guts & heads from those larger type of ground squirrels before grinding. Guts can be hard to preserve when added to meat. Also the squirrels may need to be chopped into smaller pieces before grinding?

Tainting / Rotting? It's your call. Try some of each, fresh, light taint, heavy taint.

What to add? The beaver sac oil & castor are good to use in the bait, small amounts.
IMO, You need some good sun rendered oils!!! Any of the weasel type of glands will add curiosity to a bait. You could add Skunk to one of the baits. Many many options.

Those Bobcat Glands you have. I would get them ground up and let them start rotting down to a paste. Make a gland lure! You may want to combine the Badger & Coyote glands to make a gland lure also? Unless you have a lot of Badger glands?

Just my 2 cents, Have Fun!!!

Glands from 49 coyotes, five cats and seven badger. I planned on making some coyote gland lure and some cat gland lure. The badger I thought I’d use as a curiosity add to a bait or lure.

Back before Washington lost foot traps I trapped coyotes year round doing both ADC work and fur trapping. My coyote gland lure was simply coyote glands, bladder and a little urine tainted a week to two depending on the weather and then stopped with SB and added a little glycerin for antifreeze and to give it a little smoother texture. Made application easier.

My bait was nothing other than ground beaver. No castor, oil or additives. My grinder back then would grind everything but the hip bones. I’d gut the beaver, chop them up into chunks the grinder through would take and break the hip bones with the back of my hatchet. That old grinder would never even start to lug down. Wish I still had it. Then it all went in a bucket to rot down. I never used SB or anything in it to stop it. Just let it keep aging year after year. Some of my bait had been cooking five years or more. I. Fact I still have a few buckets buried on a ranch I used to trap 25 years ago. If I can find them again I’ll try that bait.

And I caught hundreds of coyotes on the combination. I kept a few commercial offerings for change ups like O’ Gormans’s lures and Del Kramers Scent Post Savvy.

I had a 22 year hiatus from trapping while we were in Alaska due to work demands and family health matters. Still facing some of the health concerns with my wife but no work demands.

After reading a lot here on bait and lure making I find myself doubting my old methods of bait and lure making.

I have enough ground squirrels for a couple batches, and can get lots more when my wife’s health issue stabilizes. Enough bone out beaver for a couple batches and enough boned out bobcat meat for one batch. If I make it in the 3.5 gallon square buckets.

Marty, Thanks for the background information. You are an accomplished trapper!

I would say keep doing the basic bait / gland base development you have done already and add a few more to the list. Like cultured eggs is a good one. As stated already Sun rendered oils have good attraction and antifreeze qualities.

Hope you can find those old buckets of bait?

Had a good year Marty! They are all good when Im trappin. Hope you get a good bait goin with the ground squirrels. And your ankle has healed up!

The ankle is doing great. Doc said I was way ahead of schedule and I don’t need to come back for anymore follow ups. He said resume normal activities and if my ankle says no, don’t do it.

Now I have to get my wife well. She is in the hospital. She had a stroke last Monday. She is progressing well but will be going to rehab tomorrow for 2-3 weeks. She’s in ICU now but they got her stabilized to go to acute rehab. It looked pretty bleak early in the week but she’s made significant improvement each day.

We will keep her in our thoughts and prayers Marty.

Thank you sir.

I know a couple guys who freeze those ground squirrels whole and will just chop them in half frozen and throw a fresh half a ground squirrel down a dirt hole. They like it and claim it works well, fairly natural since the dirt holes are just the right size to imitate a ground squirrel hole. I haven't personally tried it, I don't personally use bait much for canines, but I took a couple gallon jars of ground squirrels and rotted them down for a year once and then poured them down postholes with cameras on them. Coyotes worked them, deer of course investigated them, a bear and a coon where I wouldn't have ever expected to find a coon. But they didn't seem to have as good an attraction as deer or beaver meat rotted down the same way.

Prayers for your wife

Sorry to hear about your Wife. Praying for her and you also.

Thank you guys.

Prayers sent out for your wife Marty.